HR496 Summary

• Congress designated section 16 in every township for school purposes when Alabama was admitted to the Union on March 2, 1819, with additional indemnity lands set aside in 1841.

• Much of the original sixteenth section lands were lost through sales, exchanges, or state bank failure in 1843, leaving many counties without identifiable lands or records of trust fund balances.

• Federal government received $14,500,998,847 in Gulf of Mexico offshore royalty revenues for fiscal year 2008 from productive lands originally designated for Alabama counties.

• Alabama House of Representatives requests Congress to annually indemnify each of the 67 counties based on lost sixteenth section acreage, using a calculation of approximately 13,881 acres per county at $1,009 per acre, with specific amounts listed for each county.

• Attorney General shall oversee collection and distribution of indemnification funds, which must increase rather than replace existing education funding, and Alabama's Congressional Delegation shall actively pursue this annual indemnification through legislation and administrative action.